Hey all! About 9-10 years ago I posted on here but I have since forgot my login info so this is a new account! Sorry for the length of this but I can’t find anything similar online and I want to explain fully what happened.
my Olive is 10 years old. Over the last year he’s lost some mobility. Having grown up with dogs I assumed this was a bit of arthritis. He no longer climbs or jumps onto things, he struggles to clean himself and I assist him.in the last month I’ve noticed him occasionally “walking” instead of hopping. Moving his back legs slow and staying low at times.
Thursday he was in a covered and gated section of the porch. He was laying with his hind legs stacked out to the left, his belly on the floor and his front legs and head off to the right.
I had never seen him lay like this. I called his name and he turned his head to look at me and seemed fine.
1/2 hour later he’s in the same position but a 180 degree turn now facing the house.
a few minutes later, same body position but now facing a different direction. (Imagine spin the bottle, he’s in one spot but rotating)
I hear scratching and see him using his feet to spin himself in a circle on this spot . His legs were going 100 miles and hour he went 360 degrees all while peeing!
cue the panic. I grabbed him. Wrapped him in a towel. Sobbed. Called emergency vet. They don’t take rabbits. Nearest emergency vet that does is a 5 hour drive .
she said there are 2 vets in the area that see rabbits (I just moved here) I called both. Only one returned the call, our appointment is today (Monday)at 3.
Emergency vet offered to put him to sleep, saying he had a stroke or he EC. I put him on cage rest. Thursday night when he tried to walk he kept falling into the walls of the cage, sliding all over the place. He seemed to be very hyper and would not lay down. He’d hop from one side of the cage to the other rolling onto his right side. we both only slept 2 hours.
the next morning he could hop somewhat but was bearing no weight on the left hind leg.
I put him on meloxicam, I have it for the dog, I’m giving him a conservative dose as I am not a vet and he has never taken it before. (.75 ml every 12 hours he is 6 lbs)
He had a dry bath to clean up the urine. Everyday he has become more active. And he is slowly bearing more weight on his left hind leg and grooming it again. But tends to hold it up.
He is in an XPen with a 1 inch deep tray lined with puppy pads as his litter box. He’s only peeing in the box, he is eating, drinking and active. Yesterday I saw him lay in the bunny loaf position he’s been avoiding since Thursday. He also thumped both back feet when a noise spooked him. I’m scared the vet will scold me for medicating him.
Do rabbits have stokes? Was he in shock from an injury? Would he recover this quickly from a break/EC/sprain or dislocation? There was nothing for him to hurt himself on he was in the center of the floor. However he may have landed wrong jumping out of his litter box (it’s about 3 inches tall). I haven’t been sleeping, I’ve found posts on here helpful at identifying possible issues. I’m worried he’s too old to be put under for any type of surgery, and I’m more anxious there are not rabbit specialists out here in Humboldt CA.
I will post what we find out. Due to COVID I can’t go into the vet with him and they aren’t equipped to do zoom. Last week I had to wait an hour past the appointment time for my dog. Ollie hates his carrier. I’m not ok with any of this.
Any ideas/thoughts or well wishes appreciated. He’s 10 and he’s never had any medical issues. We’ve been very lucky.
(Edited by Wick – redid formatting for readability)
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